Point One

Early on Thursday, last week, Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) presidential flagbearer, Oby Ezekwesili, pulled out from the crowded field of an election that is slated to hold barely three weeks hence. She said she was quitting the race to devote her time to building a strong coalition that could overawe ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and leading opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the coming poll. The activist-politician, who had all the while positioned her candidature as a viable alternative to the two dominant parties, appeared to have finally come to terms with the legendary futility of fragmented opposition challenge in political contestation. Bear in mind that the conclusive list of contenders recently unveiled by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) showed there are in excess of 70 candidates cleared to take a shot at the presidency. And that is out of a motley crowd of 91 registered parties the electoral body has on ...

Seven years after being dragged before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity, former Ivoirian leader Laurent Gbagbo briefly set sight last week on the high road to freedom. But he slipped on a last-ditch appeal by prosecutors to have him kept behind bars pending appellate trial. Judges at The Hague had on Tuesday acquitted the ex-president and ordered his immediate release because the prosecution failed to prove charges that he masterminded murder, gang rape, persecution and other inhumane acts during the 2010-2011 post-election violence that wracked his country. Following that poll, which was held on 28 th November 2010, Gbagbo had refused to cede power to Alassane Ouattara, the current president who was believed to have won. A brutal civil war then ensued, in which some 3,000 people died and 500,000 got displaced.   Gbagbo was prised out of presidential palace bunker and captured along with his wife, Simone, on 11 th A...